Albert Barnes Commentary Jeremiah 15:15-18

"O Jehovah, thou knowest; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered reproach. Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand; for thou hast filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful [brook], as waters that fail?" — Jeremiah 15:15-18 (ASV)

This is the prayer of a man in bitter grief, whose human nature cannot at present submit to the divine will. God’s long-suffering toward the wicked seemed to the prophet to be the abandonment of himself to death; justice itself required that one who was suffering contempt for God’s sake should be delivered.

Rebuke – that is, reproach, contempt.

Jeremiah 15:16

Your words were found – Jeremiah’s summons to the prophetic office had not been expected or sought for by him.

I did eat them – that is, I received them with joy. This eating of the divine words also expresses the close union between that which came from God and the prophet’s own being.

I am called by your name – that is, I am consecrated to Your service, am ordained to be Your prophet.

Jeremiah 15:17

Rather, I sat not in the assembly of the laughers, and was merry. From the time God’s words came to Jeremiah he abstained from things innocent, and a gravity came over him beyond his years.

I sat alone because of your hand – As a person consecrated to God he would also be separated. See (Jeremiah 1:5); compare (Acts 13:2).

With indignation – The prophet thus taught of God sees the sins of the people as offenses against God, and as involving the ruin of His Church.

Jeremiah 15:18

Why is my pain perpetual – that is, Are all my labors to be in vain?

As a liar ... – Really, as a deceitful brook, a brook which flows only in the winter, the opposite of the perennial stream of (Amos 5:24). Jeremiah had expected that there would be a perpetual interference of Providence in his behalf, but instead things seemed to take only their natural course.